Coronavirus cases worldwide pass 18 million as hard-hit US enters ‘new phase’
- Fresh clusters reported in countries that previously brought their outbreaks under control
- The coronavirus pandemic’s rate of infection continues to accelerate
Global coronavirus cases topped 18 million on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University, with the pandemic adding a million reported infections about every four days.
Fresh clusters have been reported in countries – such as Australia – that had previously brought their outbreaks under control, forcing governments to reimpose lockdown measures to curb the spread despite worries over more economic fallout.
Six months after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a global emergency, the virus has killed more than 687,000 people since it was first detected in China late last year.
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More than half of the world’s cases have been recorded in the United States and in Latin America and the Caribbean region.
The United States has entered a “new phase” of the pandemic, White House coronavirus advisor Deborah Birx warned Sunday, with rural areas just as threatened as major cities.
Birx, who heads the White House coronavirus task force, told CNN’s State of the Union that local virus mitigation procedures were starting to work, but added that “what we are seeing today is different from March and April”.
“It is extraordinarily widespread. It’s into the rural as equal urban areas,” she added. “To everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus.”
“We are in a new phase,” Birx said.
As of Sunday, the US had tallied more than 4.6 million cases of Covid-19 and almost 155,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, making it by far the hardest-hit country in the world.
The US notched 47,508 new cases on Sunday - a slight dip from the previous five days, which had all recorded more than 60,000 new infections
Latin America, which has some 8 per cent of the world’s population, accounts for close to 30 per cent of global cases and fatalities, with infections still spreading fast and hitting regional leaders like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Bolivia’s Jeanine Anez.
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Many other parts of the world are struggling with much bigger outbreaks.
Health authorities in South Africa, which had been expecting a surge in cases after the gradual loosening of a strict lockdown, reported that infections had exceeded the half-million mark.
The nation is by far the hardest-hit in Africa, accounting for more than half of diagnosed infections, although President Cyril Ramaphosa said the fatality rate is lower than the global average.
Iran – battling the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak – on Sunday also reported its highest single-day infection count in nearly a month, warning that most of its provinces have been hit by a resurgence of the disease.
With infections and deaths soaring, the WHO has said that the coronavirus pandemic is likely to be protracted and warned of possible “response fatigue”.
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“WHO continues to assess the global risk level of Covid-19 to be very high,” the agency said, adding that the effects of the pandemic “will be felt for decades to come”.
The pandemic has spurred a race for a vaccine with several Chinese companies at the forefront, while Russia has set a target date of September to roll out its own prophylactic.
However, US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said it was unlikely his country would use any vaccine developed in either nation.
Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg, Reuters
